Celebrate moms today, every day

May 13, 2007

Happy Mother' s Day. After last week's overwhelming events, it is wonderful to be able to shift our focus to something on the more pleasant side. Today we celebrate our mothers. Everyone has one, or has had one at one time. Some people have more than one. No mother is perfect, but each has given the gift of life and each has some special quality that makes her unique in the eyes of her children. Though the origin of Mother's Day can be traced back to the ancient Greeks and Romans, modern Mother's Day celebrations in the United States were initiated due to the hard work and commitment of Julia Ward Howe and Anna Jarvis, according to Web site www.mothersdaycelebration.com. Howe, the activist writer and poet also responsible for the famous Civil War song "Battle Hymn of the Republic" first suggested the idea of holiday to celebrate motherhood back in 1872. Prior to that time, in 1870, she also wrote the famous Mother's Day Proclamation. Jarvis really gets the credit for making the U.S. Mother's Day a reality. Though she was not a mother, herself she pushed the idea of the holiday because it had been one of her own mother's dreams. After her mother's death in 1905, she began by honoring her with carnations at church services. People supported Jarvis' efforts by working with her to establish a letter-writing campaign lobbying to make Mother's Day an official holiday. By 1911, it was celebrated in almost every state and on May 8, 1914, President Woodrow Wilson signed a joint resolution designating the second Sunday in May as Mother's Day. U.S. Census Bureau statistics and the Web site about.com indicate that there are currently more than 82 million mothers of all ages in the United States. Hallmark statistics say that about 96 percent of American consumers take part in some way in Mother's Day. Additionally, Mother's Day is widely reported as the peak day of the year for long-distance telephone calls and it is second only to Christmas in terms of gift-giving holidays. For mothers in and around Aberdeen today, perhaps the best gift would be a completely water-free home and basement. Many moms are likely still pumping water, cleaning and sanitizing floors, walls and other water-damaged possessions. These mothers deserve a little extra blessing today on their special day. Mothers are not infallible. They make mistakes. In those mistakes they set an example for their children and families that no one is perfect and that we can all strive to be better than we are. Good mothers provide comfort to their families. They make us happy. They keep us in line. They can also make us mad. They push us to do things that we might not want to do but are probably the right thing to do. Mothers come in all sorts of packages. Some mothers are tough. Some are sweet. Some are tall. Some are short. Some are thin. Some are thick. Some are funny and some are serious. Today we celebrate them all.